Monthly Archives: October 2017

Post navigation

This weekly online hour long #LTHEchat event, scheduled for this Wednesday 8-9pm, might be of interest:

The next #LTHEchat takes place on Wednesday 11th October at 8pm BST and is led by Sue Watling @suewatling and Patrick Lynch @thebigparticle (University of Hull). The title is: “Warning! May or may not include technology”.

A Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) approach to supporting learning and teaching can have limited impact and reach. Like attracts like and as TEL Advisors we tended to see the same faces at TEL themed workshops and events. Wanting to shift from Technology First to Pedagogy First, we looked for a topic which would be common to all staff involved in teaching and supporting learning, and felt the answer was the design of learning experiences.

Calling this Design for Active Learning (D4AL) put the stress on students being active participators. This aligned with the concept of students as self-regulated learners as well as moving away from traditional lecture style transmission of content models. The next question was how to sell it to staff who are already change fatigued and time poor. In these data driven times, full of red flags drawing attention to survey and evaluation responses, we wanted to move from a potentially deficit model to a more positive approach.

For us [at Hull], Design for Active Learning is about building a sustainable and scholarly approach to curriculum development and innovation by empowering staff to enhance their own teaching practice. It lies at the heart of the university’s commitment to an ‘excellence agenda’ in learning and teaching through development of curricula and co-curricular learning.

This #lthechat will be opportunity to share thoughts on adopting a Design for Active Learning approach to enhancing the student experience, which may or may not include technology (although in 2017 is this a binary which is breaking down?)